Hi, everybody, and welcome to the webcast where we present Kempower's financial results for 2023. My name is Paula Savonen. I am the VP of Communications at Kempower, and also your host today. Today, we have two presenters. We start with our CEO, Tomi Ristimäki, who presents the key highlights for 2023. After Tomi, we continue with Jukka Kainulainen, our CFO, who presents the key financials for the year. We know that there is already plenty of people on the line. Thank you for joining and being with us today, and you have already send us, sent us some questions, but keep the questions coming. There is this Q&A box on the screen, and you can ask questions any time during the webcast, and we take all the questions in the end of the presentations. Now, I give the word to Tomi.
Yes. Welcome, everybody. I would like to have the Q4 in brief. I think it's looking at the financial performance, it's a record high revenue in Kempower history, and looking at the order intake is a good, good level, and strong gross profit margin. This is really about also increasing the product capacity and improved sales mix when we look at, look at our, our gross margins. Operative EBIT is negatively affected by increased fixed costs, which are related quite highly on our investments, which in Kempower world, it's a lot of investments are OpEx-based, so we are increasing our headcount in key positions, and we are actually investing in our future product development to actually have our growth initiatives going forward.
Market trends, we see a few bottlenecks in demand in Europe, as we saw some customers in Europe destocking and lower investment activity due to the delays in grid connection availability. This is something that that is affecting how we see the. We also gave guidance to the Q1 numbers based on that. But there is still, if we look at, there's few bottlenecks, there's still strong growth in battery electric vehicle registrations, both in Europe and North America, and the growth trajectory is continuing in 2024 and forward. North America entry, one of our key initiatives, production has been started, and first orders have been shipped to customers. Order intake from North America is already 10% of the total order intake. And on technology-wise think there's a great progress.
I have a summary on that, in a few slides. The introduction of Megawatt Charging Program, which is related to the, especially the long-haul truck charging, that affects a lot in the future market. After the review period, we launch our next generation charging solutions with the new technology, power semiconductor technology, is referred as Silicon Carbides or shortly as SiC components. On customer highlights, it's we are now delivering fast charging solutions to St1, which is one of the largest energy companies in Northern Europe. Great launch, now publicly, with Sainsbury's new Smart Charge EV chain. Sainsbury's is top five retailer in the, when you look at the whole Europe, and one of the biggest in U.K., and we do now the charging business together with them, all around U.K.
We have from the commercial vehicle segment some significant projects: Malta's first electric bus depot, with over 3 MW of charging power, was delivered. Then also glimpse to the future, how we see also the water transportation moving. The partnership with Aqua Superpower and the first deliveries for boat charging in the Mediterranean area is also showing the future growth markets. Looking at North America as such, as I mentioned, it's a key initiative in Kempower strategy. The picture itself is actually representatives of the U.S. Congress visiting our new facility in North Carolina, and our Imani actually telling story how the products work in the picture. Kempower received the ETL certification for the production.
This means the safety approvals in the U.S., where you need to also qualify all the production facilities. We had previously this to the Finnish factory, so we could make the U.S. deliveries, but now also North Carolina facility is certified. First products have been shipped, as mentioned. Growing demand and trust towards Kempower brand, and very positive sales pipeline development in the North America combined. We are continuing our expand of production, so I mentioned growth initiatives. One of the things is actually be prepared for the growing demand from the market. We produced around 5,000 charging points in Q4, which is a really growing figure, and electricity charged through Kempower chargers in Q4, 2023 was 70,000 MWh.
We have now successfully ramped up production facilities in two continents, and third production facility in Lahti, so our third factory in Europe, which are now all based in Lahti, to be open during the second half of 2024, and this project is progressing very well. Important milestones in R&D and technology. This definitely something that relates heavily on the North American market. This NACS charging standards is something that was originally only Tesla car or Tesla-developed charging standard. As we have now seen, almost all the car manufacturers have made announcements that they move into NACS charging standard for the North American market by 2025, 2024. This is different with different car manufacturers. And we will have all our charging solutions available with NACS charging standard during the Q1. Megawatt Charging Program from Kempower for electric trucks and also electric vehicles using high power.
I mean, also we look at the ship industry, we look at all the large vehicles with high battery capacities, and these powers go really above megawatt. And this has been launched during Q4. And then as a news from this year, the next generation fast charging platform, utilizing the newest, let's say, commercially viable, power semiconductor technology called Silicon Carbide, has been released. And that actually the big benefits, we will not see that so much in the end users. It's more our direct customers when we look at lower power losses, thanks to the high operating frequencies of what are actually made possible by the next generation power semiconductors, and through that, actually increased system efficiency in total.
Looking back to our growth strategy, what are the key points we also mentioned last year in our CMD Capital Markets Day? Looking at the growth strategy, where we are today and what we want to be. Dedicated and reliable EV charging solution partner. Ambition level is to be the top five player in Europe and North America by 2030. When we look at the three markets from the aspect, what we are seeing here, Europe, that we have top position in the Nordics, and we are increasing market share in the rest of Europe very fast. North America, we see that North America at this stage is very rapidly growing market, and we did the entry in 2023. The rest of the world, we do have...
You can see some news, things happening in the rest of the world, especially we look at Southeast Asia, Australia. So in our strategy and in our company, this business development stage, and we are screening the key markets on where to focus, and the business is mainly done through distribution partners. But we do have people working in this market because we need to know what happens, and we need to be prepared when the markets get interesting enough for us to enter, like, with a real presence and rather than couple of people in different countries looking at the business development activities. And looking at our global presence, so blue areas in there are the countries where you can see that there is Kempower chargers in use, charging some kind of vehicles.
There might be some mining vehicles, there could be personal cars, commercial vehicles, depending on the area. But it's, I like to see this, this, this slide actually getting more blue from the point of view that we are, we are able to actually access different markets. And the key point here is also that why, like we have promised, from, from our strategy point of view and in the execution, have been succeeding, that 63% of the revenue already comes outside of the Nordics. And Nordics, we consider our home market from the beginning. So this is, this is work well done from the team and, and according to the company strategy. And then looking at, at the market outlook in the long run, the outlook is unchanged.
So we are looking at still the 2030 very highly growing market because we are looking today about EUR 2 billion market size. We are looking at the growth to EUR 14 billion by 2030, and quite equal share to Europe and North America. And as we see the figures, the growth will be more rapid in North America because it's today's figures, it's a smaller chunk today. Then looking at our robust solution pipeline, and it's been released as planned. So these were the topics we raised as main technology initiative when we published our Capital Markets Day material. Two first ones were already Q2 2023, so Plug and Charge has been released in Q2 last year.
We look at the Eichrecht, which opens the doors to the German charging market, especially the public charging in Germany, was done also in Q2 2023. Megawatt Charging System, and what we call now actually Megawatt Charging System, because it's not a single system, it's not a single product, it's a group of products and complete approach for the Megawatt Charging, was released in Q4 2023. And then as a last but not the least, is the Silicon Carbide semiconductor-based charging power units. They were released now in Q1 2024. And now I give the floor to Jukka to continue.
Thank you, Tomi. Okay, so sustainability highlights for the quarter. In Q4 , we joined UN Global Compact initiative, which is world's largest initiative for promoting sustainable business practices. We also have refined our ESG strategy. We, for example, completed the Double Materiality Assessment during the quarter, and we have continued preparing for this new CSRD reporting requirements. When looking from KPI point of view, our employee net promoter score for 2023 was 69, which is really on excellent level, and we are of course happy on that. And more you will hear from us, we will launch on week ten our sustainability report regarding year 2023. And then let's go to financials. In concluding whole year 2023, it was of course great year financially. Our revenue was almost tripled.
We delivered strong gross margins for the year. Our operative EBIT was more than 14%, and in addition to that, we generated positive cash flow. So all the ways, really, really great year, 2023. When looking Q4 financials, we delivered order intake close to EUR 67 million, which was on good level. We generated revenue close to EUR 83 million, which was the record high in Kempower history. Our gross profit margin for the quarter was 53.1%, so really on great level. Our operative EBIT margin was 6.7%, which was impacted by our, of course, ongoing investments in U.S. and also additional accruals worth of, worth of EUR 4.9 million, what we accounted in Q4.
When looking cash flow from operating activities, that was also positive, EUR 0.7 million for the quarter. Looking the headcount, end of the year, 737 people, so we almost doubled our headcount during the year 2023. Yep, then let's go to order intake. Like I commented in Q4 , it was on a good level, but at the same time, like Tomi commented, it was impacted by high inventory levels on some of our customers. Also, some lower investment activity we encountered, which was relating on the delays in grid connection, availability in some markets. And then on top of that, also our launch of new next generation product portfolio had some impact on our intake on the quarter. But still, when looking at Q4 order intake, it was actually second highest quarter in Kempower's history.
So it was really on good level, like we communicated. Then, when we look our revenue growth and revenue trend from the history, so like I commented, we generated close to EUR 284 million revenue for the full year 2023, so growing it by 174%. Also, Q4 revenue was growing more than 100%, reaching close to EUR 83 million during the quarter. And I think it's also notable that this was the 8th quarter in a row when we grew our revenue also sequentially, not only year-on-year. So great accomplishment in that sense. When looking Q4 revenue growth in different regions, so major growth achieved, especially in the rest of Europe and in North America.
When you look at our Q4 revenue overall, so actually 63% of our revenue came outside Nordics, which is of course, building the great platform for us to continue growing, growing also this year and in the future. About our operative EBIT and operative cash flow. Our operative EBIT for the quarter was 7%, and it was impacted by this increased fixed costs and these additional provisions worth of EUR 4.9 million, which was accounted in Q4 . On top of that, we continued also our effort in North America expansion in Q4 of 2023. In operating cash flow side, it was improving year-on-year, and we generated positive operating cash flow by EUR 0.7 million. Our outlook for 2023, we continue striving the rapid and profitable growth.
We continue our efforts in our key markets in Europe, including capacity expansion in Europe. We also continue our growth strategy execution in U.S. soil and in North America. On top of that, like we communicated, we are launching this new fast-charging product portfolio. What we expect, our revenue guidance for 2024 is between EUR 360 million up to EUR 410 million, and operative EBIT margin guidance is between 5% up to 10%. We also give guidance for our Q1 of 2024, which is impacted by the high inventory levels of our customers and also the launching the new product portfolio. For the Q1 , we guide the revenue between EUR 51 million up to EUR 56 million, and we expect operating EBIT to be significantly lower than in the previous year, Q1 .
Then, about our financial targets, what we made public last spring. Revenue, we target EUR 750 million in the midterm between 2026 and 2028. And in the same time frame, we target operative EBIT margin between 10% up to 15%, and then in the long term, at least 15% operative EBIT margin. And on the short term, we are not planning to share dividends. And when looking our results from the last year, tripling revenue, delivering more than 14% operative EBIT margin, we are well on track on reaching our financial targets. Thank you.
Thank you, Tomi. Thank you, Jukka. Now we move on to your questions, and thank you for sending out the questions. We have plenty of those, and luckily, we also have quite a lot of time to taking the questions. Now let's discuss and start. First, I just wanna ask you, how do you feel about the year 2023?
I think it was, like he said, it's outperforming, I think from the team and the employees. Creating the almost triple growth in this stage, still when we are talking about the company who made over EUR 100 million last year, and we almost tripled that, that's definitely an achievement. So feeling very happy about that.
How about you, Jukka?
Yes, I fully agree. I have exactly the same feeling when we were in the same event last year, and our first guidance for the year was EUR 180 million up to EUR 210 million revenue, and we made more than EUR 100 million more than in the minimum there, so definitely great year.
Yeah, I share the feeling.
Yeah. Now let's go to the questions. The first question: Could you please comment on the development in the U.S.? Any color you can add there? The guidance seems fairly conservative. What do you think are the greatest challenges ahead, and how are you working towards solving them in the U.S.?
I tHink we will concentrate. We still have invested a lot in the new salespeople there, and we have been growing the pipeline through that. I think it's been generally very positive to see which companies we're able to discuss with, which staples we are talking with. Of course, it takes, in a new market, it's not an instant move when you come with a new brand in there, but I think the welcoming from U.S. to us has been quite great.
Thank you, Tomi. Next question, and, this is about the outlook. Could you explain the reason for expected high uptick in sales for the Q2 , Q3 , and Q4 compared to the Q1 ? What is your confidence on this, and where is this expected demand increase basing on? Have you seen order intake significantly increasing in Q1, and do you expect sales to pick up already in Q2? Quite a long question about this outlook and how it develops.
Yeah, a detailed answer is difficult to give, but it's basically we see the demand still positive in the market. We see some, like mentioned, there is bottlenecks in the short period. What we see actually, let's say, diminishing out with Q1, and we wanted to be frank on that also to the market, that telling what happens is, I think, better than trying to play something else. It's very clear that we see, and like you see from our guidance, that we expect this, and this is actually supported by our pipeline, by our discussions with the customers and the forecast. So I think we have high beliefs on the market and the guidance.
Thank you. How big was the impact from delayed orders due to waiting for new technology products? Were you aware of this impact earlier, or did this come as a surprise? Have some old orders been converted to include new technology products?
I think a wide question again on this. I think it is, it's quite normal when you have a kind of industrial products that you, you introduce a new product, that you will be. The shifting phase will have some, some impact there. Not commenting on the percentage, but it's, it's really depending on, on, on which application, what are we doing, and, what kind of a time schedules the customers have. Because it will be actually a year that we have the old and new parallelly in production.
Thanks, Tomi. And, let's continue a little bit with the guidance and sales, and this is also about North America. So how much does your sales guidance in 2024 lean on sales in North America?
Yeah. So of course, it's included in the guidance. You know, that's part of our, our company. But of coUrse, we have opportunities in all the regions we are at the moment working on, so, so yes, it, it's there, of course.
Included?
Yes.
Yeah. Thank you, Jukka. Then, this is also to Jukka. The provisions increased by EUR 5 million in the Q4 . What's behind this development?
Yeah. So like we communicated also in our release, so there was some warranty cost provisions we did, and also some accounts receivables related provisions, which is based on IFRS, our metrics, which is, of course, making the across at the end of the day. So not a specific kind of business as usual in that sense. That sense.
Thanks, Jukka. Then, given that you expect rather low sales in the Q1 , will you produce products more to inventory in the Q1 to be able to deliver more in the second, third, and fourth quarter?
I think the good answer in German is yeah, which is yes and no. We have our main production model is made to order from our point of view, because we have a customizable system, and we have high, quite heavy branding on certain customers. So in that sense, it is yes and no, that we have some capability to do that, but in majority, our whole production strategy is based on made to order principle.
Yeah. Then, this is about the production capacity share between Finland and the U.S. What is the production capacity share between Finland and the U.S.? How has the production started in the U.S.? Any hiccups? But let's take the production capacity first. So-
I think it's also clear that we can see then when the sales grow, because it's more the sales strategy, because the North American factory will produce to the North American market. So it's based on that demand and based on that sales. European factory will support the European market, and if we need more support in U.S., we'll support that as well, but also the Asian side of business. So I think it's a good measure to look at. If we look at the size of the factories after the expansion in Lahti, today they are the same size, and it will be almost double in Finland after the expansion that is going to now actually be finished in the before the H2.
Now, about the same size?
About the same size today but then when we look at our next expansion in Lahti, which is ongoing that will, it's not exactly double, then in Finland, but it's close to that.
Yes.
From the area-wise, that doesn't tell the whole capacity because the-
And then you can design the layout and-
You can design the layout.
Yeah.
You are actually. This continuous improvement is ongoing, and it's actually that's not a good measure for the capacity, but gives a good impression how we do it.
Yes. The next one is about the pricing environment also in the U.S. Can you speak about the pricing environment in the U.S., given many of your competitors have struggled with gross margins in that market?
I think it's a fair, fair question. I could answer, we don't normally comment on specific customer pricing, but I could say that today, when you look at especially the NEVI funded project, where we qualify now, and we have plans to actually go to the next level as well, the competition is not very high. There is not many competitors, so that's my comment to the pricing there.
Okay. Yeah.
It's a lot more competitors that you face in Europe, and that's more mature market, so that's, that's it.
Thank you. The next question is about gross margin and, also the SiC product portfolio. So what has been driving up the gross margin recently, and do you expect the new SiC product portfolio to affect into gross margin?
I can comment on that. So of course, overall, when you're looking this year, our sales delivery mix has been quite favorable, visible in our gross margins. Overall, our. We have also been able to improve our unit costs, so reduce unit costs for 2023. So those both has actually impacted positively on our gross margin in 2023. And regarding this new product portfolio, so we don't see any material differences in the unit costs when looking that overall.
Thanks, Jukka. Then this is also about a little bit guidance, sales and order backlog. So what is the reason for expecting sales of only EUR 50 million in the Q1 , despite the EUR 111 million order backlog? Are all the orders relevant in the backlog, or is there risks of cancellation of orders?
Yeah, this is a good question. So I think we have commented many times, we are quite strict when we book order backlog on index. So it's only legally binding orders, what is in our backlog. So totally, fully valid backlog, in that sense. And like we communicated, it's, Q1 impacted by these high inventory levels, delays in grid connection availability, and also the, launching the new fast charging product portfolio. So those are the elements impacting our Q1, Q1 financials.
Then there is a question about the market share. So, how would you comment or estimate Kempower's market share in Europe and in North America?
I think we don't openly communicate because we have... I don't trust all the calculations, because it's a new market. But looking at some analyst reports, there is a good kind of looking at, like, Bryan Garnier analysis, there is an estimate of market share available for everybody to read. Yeah.
Yeah. Then about the interest rates, do rising interest rates have any impact on Kempower's business, Jukka?
We haven't seen the direct impact so far on that. But it's, of course, you know, there might be some CBOs having the next financing round, struggling to get new capital. But when looking Kempower business, we haven't seen any direct impact on the raising interest rates.
Thanks. Then we move on to the economic development in Europe, and how does that affect the decision-making? So does the poor economic development in Europe affect the decision-making of customers? Can you elaborate on the market sentiment in Europe?
I think it's a kind of situation a little bit the same as the interest rate question, that it gives, of course, some uncertainty to customers, but when the demand is there. But how I see that the purchasing decisions are pushed more forward, and it's, it's, it's in a way, again, not an exact science there, but it's of shortening the order backlog in, in time because the customers are pushing the, or let's say, the purchase decision to the final moment. So this is a behavior what we see, but that's also coming from the, that the uncertainty of component availability has removed from the market. So it's, it's the same effect in, in that sense.
Yeah. Then, this is maybe a little bit the same topic, but also about grid availability. You talked about the decrease in investment activity due to delays in the availability and grid connection availability. So do you see that the development of grid connections cannot keep up with the construction of the charging infra, which will limit the growth of Kempower in the medium term?
I think the medium term is a bit long. I think we are looking at not the whole grid development, we are looking at the local connections and the delivery time of transformers, delivery time of the actual connections. I think it's a new business, if you look at the grid owners, that they have been demanded to deliver high-capacity outputs at this pace.
So it needs time to adjust from that point on, because I think they have never been in this situation in... when you look at the grid, network owners. So it's a new situation that's giving delays because it's not unusual for them over the years that. And these are high-power connections from the local grid. So that's where it comes from.
Yeah. Then, congratulations with strong and exceptional profitable growth. Why does Kempower inform the market and customers about a new product portfolio before it is available for customers to buy?
I think it's. We inform because you cannot start sales activities, you cannot start marketing activities. I think we are talking about B2B markets, where you have a delivery time for the product, and basically, we cannot start selling the product if we don't tell about it. So that's actually when the product is ready, you come out, and after that, you can start sales activities, you can start marketing activities. It is the phase when you work in the B2B market, that if you wait until you have a full capacity of products in stock, you will have no sales in six months because the discussions take long.
It's kind of normal procedure that when you launch the sales, then you actually. The product is then available. Then the second point is, from that point of view, also that it's the made-to-order principle, so the delivery time has a key there as well, and the ramp-up also has time. But it's... Basically, we publish the product when we start selling it.
Yes. Yes. The next question goes to you, Jukka. Would you consider raising interest-bearing debt in 2024?
We are not looking anything like that at the moment, but actually we commented in Q3 that we have found new growth areas in the industry, and we are kind of open also on the new financing. But at the moment, there is nothing on the table.
But we do have the balance of-
Then, of course, yeah, of course, we have liquid funds around EUR 100 million on the balance sheet at the moment. So, I mean, strong balance sheet and the negative net debt as well, so no urgent needs in that sense. But it's linked on the new growth opportunities if we would do anything on that area.
Thanks, Jukka. Will you consider entering new geographies in 2024, or just focus on the current ones?
I think it's very clear what we have stated also in the strategy, that we are. Our main focus areas are the Europe and the North American markets. But, like I explained also in there, that we are exploring the new markets. Like, it's in a business development phase, which in Kempower means that we have some personnel working with the area, and we do business through the distributors. But in our industry, again, the distributors need support, so we have local people to support the distributors, and this way, we also find out how the market is when we have people working there and actually doing that.
So in a way, it's a yeah and answer again, but it means the main focus is there, but we do some activities to actually be very aware where the market grows, what are the opportunities, and best you learn when you are actually in the market doing business.
Yeah. Well, we were looking at the map earlier, and the main markets are Europe, North America, but then, there is also some activities in APAC area.
So we- [crosstalk] We could have deeper blue in the country where we have more to have it clear.
Yeah.
But yes, we do have some interesting markets there.
Yeah.
And then we have mainly the team in Australia, and then a couple of people in different countries is supporting that. So this is, I think it's a very interesting market, looking at the Malaysia, Thailand area that is growing now with EVs. As a new charging network what we are building in India with our customers, so these are interesting things, but not the main focus yet.
Thank you, Tomi. Then about the strategy, what is the most important strategic target for the group, in 2024?
I just think keep our path on the growth path, and we are looking at, we look at the North American expansion. In Europe, there is great work to be done. I think the biggest European market called Germany. We have the investments in there. We are looking at the place for our competence center in Germany to have more, let's say, centralized hub for in Germany to support the market, and of course, looking at strengthening our presence in France, U.K., which are the big markets. And this is really focusing, focusing, focusing on, on the expansion side, and then continuing the path on the technology development. These are probably the key, key initiatives there. We added a lot of R&D resources, and we have do have tasks for them, so it's ... it's the product portfolio and development is very important.
Then, about the risks, what is the most significant risk for Kempower in 2024? What would you consider?
Yeah, it's like we have communicated also earlier, so of course, we have a growth strategy what we execute, and that includes, of course, several different kind of risks. So we need to succeed in technology, we need to succeed in sales, in growing, so kind of quite a typical risk relating on the business where we are at the moment.
Thanks, Jukka. Then, about the M&As, would you consider doing an M&A in 2024? And, what kind of targets do you have for those?
Yeah, I think we have commented that earlier also, so not excluding M&A. Also, looking that in some extent, that it's especially the technology companies, companies what we could consider, but not super active in that area, but we have also project stream ongoing regarding that.
So active on that front?
Yes.
Yeah. About Germany, there has been limited amount of news from Germany in terms of Kempower. What is the competitive situation in Germany? Has Kempower gotten any foothold in the market?
We are doing the starting, and I think it's fair to say it's not the fastest moving market in there, but it's very stable once you get in. But it is our, let's say, I mean, the human resource investments are ongoing. We are looking at the competence and the location, and I think looking at the discussion and the pipeline again, I think nothing happens in a week, nothing happens in a month, so it is a continuous work, and we do publish the information when there is big news to tell. But I think the market is developing for us favorably now from the start after the ETL approval.
Yes. Then about the timing of launching the Next Generation Charging portfolio, so why now? Why did you decide to launch this new portfolio now?
Well, the decision was done two years ago when we started developing it, and it's launched when it's ready. It's really to get the efforts from the inputs and the hard work from our R&D, who has been working with the new product portfolio for long now. So I think it's a little bit odd question. Of course, we try to launch products as they get ready, and then we are ready to launch, and we have the means to also answer the demand when it's there. So that's... that is there.
Yeah. Then, Steven Benamouf asks... Sorry if I pronounce it. I try to pronounce it right. When do you expect that increasing production capacity and U.S. ramp up will offset the upfront investments weighing on profitability?
So we don't. Well, this year, like, we guided the operative EBIT between 5% and 10%, and we also commented the drivers behind that, our efforts in Europe, including capacity expansion, our expansion in North America, including capacity as well. So we do this effort this year, then we also have to—it's good to look our financial targets that we target, you know, on the long term, after 2028, at least 15% operative EBIT. So there is no clear answer because we continue investing and according the growth, so it's, we continue also expanding our capacity, according our financial targets for the coming years as well.
So we don't stop that. It goes according our growth-
One thing, it's a continuous investment in operating expenses to actually-
All the time.
It's the growth is, is still the main focus.
Yeah. This is also about U.S., actually. Did you see any one-off costs in Q4 related to the U.S. ramp up, or should we expect the fixed cost to continue to grow from the current levels in 2024?
Yeah, regarding U.S., there wasn't any specific additional cost in U.S. Of course, we have grown our employee base in U.S., so that is increasing the fixed cost in Q4 , but nothing specific one-off kind of cost wasn't in the Q4 relating U.S.
I'm looking at it, it's, if we had before 20 people, and now we have 100 people, 100 people cost more, so this is very clear. But this is also that we have the high expectance of the business to pick uP that the investment pays off. It's basically we are. That is actually very typical Kempower investment, that we have adding resources, and then that generates revenue in the long run. So this is actually the way how it's done. It's not so much about factory, because we don't own buildings, and, and we don't have heavy machinery, so it's quite typical investment from that point of view.
This is about U.S. election, actually. Can you elaborate the impact of U.S. election in 2024, and the risk that Trump could be once again the U.S. president, knowing that he is not supportive on the electric vehicles? How do you see that?
We, we don't actually know that, what is his statement on that, because it's, it's been a little bit varying. But, I think political comments in here is, of course, we are very interested to see what happens. But actually looking at the, the NEVI funding, for example, is based on bipartisan law, and this is something that is, is not easily removed anywhere. So from that point of view, it's, it's more secure when we look at the biggest funding that our customers get as subsidies for the building of the networks.
Yeah. Jukka, can you elaborate on the working capital trend in 2024?
Yeah. So of course, looking working capital and how we were able to generate more cash flow during the year, so actually our cash reserve increased by EUR 22 million for whole year. So we managed it really well whole year, and of course it was great to deliver positive cash flow for the whole year.
Yeah. Then, how do you see the current market situation, Tomi?
I think it's basically what we see is the bottlenecks in slowing some things down, and these are kind of barriers in there for the short term when you look at the amount of grid connections. People actually, after the COVID period, components actually ordering a lot of units to stock and then not being able to install everything, so. It's not only about Kempower chargers being in stock, it's actually every DC charger. Supplier is probably facing the same situation today on the market, that in certain countries it's a slowdown. It's not, again, every country, but it's a phenomenon that we have been seeing more than one country happening. In the long run, we still see very positive market. It's looking at a EUR 2 billion market growing to EUR 14 billion.
We see very positive, let's say, discussions with the customers. I think it's sales are still busy talking with the customers, with very interesting projects, very interesting cooperation. So from that point of view, I'm positive about the market.
Yes, and I think that's also a very nice comment to close the discussion today. Thank you for a super active discussion. We actually had around 1,000 people on the line today, which is quite a lot. Thank you for all of you who joined. But before you leave, we wanna show you something. Next week, we start the winter vacations here in Finland, so we start in the southern Finland, and the schools are out, and very many people drive from Helsinki area, from the south to the north, to Lapland for skiing vacation. If you drive with EV, it's a long journey and need to charge. So here is a video of our customer's charging hub.
It's called Oulun Baari, Neste Oulun Baari, and it's actually on the way if you travel up north with your electric car. So check it out, and we wish you a great week. Thank you for all the questions, and if you're traveling to north next week, have a nice vacation. Bye.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye. Thank you.